Definitions

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Processes and Policy Implications for Travel
SustainabilityCivil Engineering Senior
Sophisters

• Introduction
• Definitions
• Sustainability
• Suburbanisation
• Travel Behaviour

• Land use/Transport Interaction
• Settlement Morphology
• Policy Implications

Dr. Karen Donegan Centre for Transport Research,
Department of Civil, Structural and
Environmental Engineering January
21st 2004
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
Based on today's lecture, supporting research
methodology and case study application, students
will have a firm

• Knowledge and Understanding
• of -
• basic characteristics of suburbanisation and
• travel behaviour
• in the context of sustainability
• The importance of the interaction between
  transport and land use.

• Intellectual Skills
• Evaluate policies in the light of outcomes and
  evidence
• Develop reasoned and sustained arguments in the
  evaluation of -
• transport policies
• the effectiveness of environmental assessment
• the impacts of travel behaviour and residential
  location on the environment
• the relationships between transport and
  sustainable development.

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INTRODUCTION

• The impact of travel behaviour on sustainability
  requires an explanation as to why there are
  housing developments taking place in rural towns
  (suburbanisation).
• This obligates an awareness of
• Sustainability
• The Suburbanisation Process
• Travel Behaviour
• Land use/Transport Interaction
• an appreciation of current policy

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• INCLUDES
• energy conservation
• urban design
• waste management
• transportation
• urban forestry, and
• many other disciplines
• BUT -
• What does sustainability really mean?

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SUSTAINABILITY

• is one of the most used and abused terms in
  modern environmental science
• means different things to different people
• has gained a high profile on governmental agendas
  
• The concept requires a robust and policy relevant
  mechanism for measurement.

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THE UK STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• "A Better Quality of Life" (1999) breaks down the
  definition into four key objectives, to be
  integrated and delivered simultaneously in
  achieving sustainable development
• Social Progress which recognises the needs of
  everyone
• Effective protection of the environment
• Prudent use of natural resources and
• Maintenance of high and stable levels of growth
  and employment.

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WORKING DEFINITION

• Sustainability
• Meeting the needs of the present without
  compromising the ability of future
  generations to satisfy their needs
• WCED (1987) Brundtland Report

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DEFINITION OF SUBURBANISATION

• Suburbanisation is the rapid expansion of
• villages within easy reach of large towns or
  cities.
• Such villages are termed
• commuter villages
• dormitory villages
• metropolitan villages
• incipient suburbs and
• discontinuous suburbs.
• Waugh (1990) highlights the key features of
• suburbanisation in the following table.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF SUBURBANISATION
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HISTORICAL PROCESS OF SUBURBANISATION
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TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR

• Travel behaviour is about much more than the
  political initiatives surrounding e.g.
• road pricing
• traffic calming
• integrated transport
• car-free zones
• bus priority lanes
• dedicated cycle paths
• It is also about Land-use Planning Lifestyle

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BEHAVIOURAL ASPECTS OF TRAVEL
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LAND USE TRANSPORT INTERACTION

• Increased affluence
• greater mobility and
• advances in transport technology
• have all encouraged decentralisation of
• residential,
• retail outlets and
• employment opportunities
• Land use trends and travel patterns have
  therefore reinforced each other
• in the emergence of a more dispersed, highly
  
• mobile and car dependent society.

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• Transport is an important factor in the evolution
  of settlements and in turn, patterns of
  development influence the demand for movement
  (RCEP, 1995).
• Without the advent of fast-mechanised modes of
  transport, cities would look very different from
  the way they do
• some would have much smaller populations
• some would not be dispersed nor built to such
  low densities
• some would not even be where they are
  presently situated (Webster and Paulley, 1990).

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• In confronting the sustainability issues of
  lifestyle and land-use
• there is a need to be able to quantify the
• sustainability of household travel
• behaviour

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SETTLEMENT MORPHOLOGY TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR

• Factors that influence travel behaviour arise
  from the emergence of a highly mobile and
  dispersed society.
• Patterns of land use also influence travel
  behaviour.
• Settlement morphology is related to the
  frequency, distance, speed and mode of travel.
• There is broad consensus that land use planning
  policies should seek to minimise the need for
  travel and encourage the use of less polluting
  forms of transport.

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LOCATION OF DEVELOPMENT

• is an important factor in reducing the necessity
  for travel.
• location of development close to an existing
  urban area or strategic transport corridors
  conclusively distorts travel patterns (Headicar,
  1997)
• Settlements located within the urban fringe
  occupy lower levels of self-containment
  themselves but in terms of travel effects, this
  is more than offset by the links with the
  principal city.
• In the ever-expanding stand-alone settlements,
  more than a quarter of all work journeys are to
  places outside that settlement.
• the location of developments close to strategic
  transport routes has a distorting effect by
  increasing the proportion of very long commuting
  journeys. It also biases the mode share towards
  the route concerned.

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RESIDENTIAL DENSITIES

• A city's form and land use determine its
  efficiency in the use of energy, materials, water
  and space.
• Dense settlement patterns together with mixed
  land uses that are generally associated with
  European cities are considered more efficient in
  the use of natural resources.
• The density and location of urban activities as
  well as the provision of infrastructure also
  affect travel patterns and petrol consumption and
  hence the level of emissions from transport.

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RESEARCH SHOWS.

• Different settlement and land use patterns have
  been analysed in relation to the pressure on the
  local and global environment, generated by
  selected cities worldwide
• International comparisons of gasoline usage per
  head in different cities suggest that consumption
  rises at an increasing rate as densities fall.
• US cities with the lowest densities exhibit the
  highest mobile energy consumption rates
• Newman Kenworthy (1989a/b) and Newman (1992)
• European cities are relatively fuel efficient,
  and those cities with very high densities are the
  most efficient.

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UK GOVMENT RESEARCH CONFIRMED THAT

• land use policies could reduce projected
  transport emissions by 16 over twenty years.
• differences in total distances travelled per week
  are largely linked to varying levels of car use
  and population density.
• overall per capita travel distance increases for
  smaller urban areas, most of the increase being
  by car.

ECOTEC, (1993)
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FURTHER RESEARCH SHOWS.

• Metropolitan areas (excluding London) appear to
  induce the least travel,
• Smaller urban and rural areas are more fuel
  inefficient and hence unsustainable
• It has been suggested that this is because modal
  split moves towards the greater use of rail and
  bus when densities are increased, thus
• car use declines and so does energy consumption
  per capita.
• Wood et al. (1994) - As cited in the Bartlett
  School of Planning - URBASSS Executive Summary
  (2002) 

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INTERPRETATION OF EVIDENCE

• If distance travelled, fuel consumption and
  emissions are to be reduced
• need for policies to promote densification, urban
  compaction and public transport, (Cooper et al,
  2002)
• Stricter urban containment will reduce the need
  for travel (which is the fastest growing and
  least controlled contributor to global warming) -
  by facilitating shorter journeys and inducing
  greater supply and use of public transport,
  Breheny (1996) .
• reduce the use of non-renewable fuels along with
  harmful emissions.

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• More compact cities, when appropriately planned,
  reduce travel needs and provide many
  opportunities for efficient public transport and
  other forms of energy saving.
• By ensuring the appropriate mixtures of land
  uses, the availability of local facilities and
  employment, and good quality public transport,
  the efficiency in levels of transport would be
  significantly increased if the dependence on car
  travel was reduced and balanced communities were
  encouraged (Banister, 1992).

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• In a study carried out by Winter et al. 1995, the
  following hypothesis 'local provision of
  facilities/services leads to local use' was
  upheld
• most local facilities were utilised with a
  twofold advantage,
• firstly, shorter trip lengths and
• secondly, more trips were made by foot.
• It was concluded that the following eight
  facilities food shop, newsagent, open space,
  post office, primary schools, public house,
  supermarket and secondary schools - should be
  provided in all large housing developments.

HOWEVER ...
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• Provision of local facilities does not itself
  encourage more walking to those facilities.
• Although provision of local services/facilities
  is a necessary condition for local use, it does
  not necessarily follow that provision leads to
  use.
• More important determinants of mode choice rest
  with personal and household characteristics.
• In practice,
• people must make a conscious choice to use the
  facilities rather than get into the car and
  travel to more distant competing facilities
  (Farthing et al., 1996).
• This is dependent on peoples perceived needs and
  predisposition towards car use - which cannot be
  determined by land use policies.

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THE COMPACT CITY

• A way to reduce travel needs would be to bring
  homes, jobs, and services together in a
  relatively compact urban centre to achieve a high
  level of accessibility with little need for
  movement.
• The compact city is being promoted throughout
  Europe and the UK as a means of promoting
  sustainability.
• Planners should aim for compactness and
  integration of land uses in order to attain some
  degree of "self-containment".

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THE COMPACT CITY - BENEFITS

• less car dependency
• low emissions
• reduced energy consumption
• better public transportation services
• increased overall accessibility
• the re-use of infrastructure and previously
  developed land
• the rejuvenation of existing urban areas and
  urban vitality
• a high quality of life
• the preservation of green space, and
• a milieu for enhanced business and trading
  activities.

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A LOCAL DIMENSION

• Focuses on implications of suburbanisation for
  travel behaviour and sustainability
• urban overspill on dormitory settlements
• Seeks to test the hypothesis that
• Current trends in suburbanisation are
• militating against the aims of sustainable
  development..

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• This research project corresponds with two
  questions raised by the DoEs 1997 Shaping Our
  Future
• What choice of development opportunities is
  consistent with a long term sustainable approach
  to regional development?
• Is it possible to set new directions in relation
  to the future pattern of development, in order to
  produce a better outcome for the region?

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RESEARCH DIRECTION

• The research involves
• people
• their residential location
• their travel behaviour
• their choices
• their attitudes
• within a virtual information framework
• structured from expert opinion
• based on sustainability indicators as attributes

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• To formulate a methodology
• capable of wider application
• supporting planning policy considerations
• To establish a consensus checklist of
• travel behaviour indicators
• reflecting sustainability
• basis for comparing community settlements
• basis for comparing households

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ASSESSMENT INVOLVES

• A multiattribute model
• The integration of expert opinion with observed
  data
• EXPERTS Sustainability/Transport
• SURVEY Number of settlement classes

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SURVEY LOCATION

• The southern commuter corridor of BCR
• with four settlement classifications
• 1 Inner city - brownfield/infill sites
• - Dublin Road - Ormeau Road,
  - Ravenhill Road
• 2 Edge of city - Fourwinds
• 3 Dormitory area - Knockmore, Lisburn
• 4 Suburbanised Village - Moira

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ASSESSMENT TOOL

• A linear aggregation of the expert weightings
  and household scores to provide a discriminating
  index of travel behaviour sustainability for
  each sampled household (The Household
  Sustainability Index) through
• an analytic hierarchy of travel behaviour
  indicators to assess expert weightings
• a corresponding points scheme designed to assess
  individual households

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TOWARDS AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK The Household
Sustainability Index (HSI)

• The modelling strategy is set in five distinct
  phases
• Phase 1 inclusive or conceptualisation
• Phase 2 expert opinion
• Phase 3 household survey
• Phase 4 data integration
• Phase 5 statistical analysis.
• These phases although discrete in their purpose,
  are integrated and interactive in their function.
  

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METHODOLOGY
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THE MULTI-ATTRIBUTE MODEL
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ATTRIBUTES

• TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR INDICATORS
• (Determined by expert consensus)
• ANALYTIC HIERARCHY
• POINTS SCHEME

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HIERARCHICAL MODEL
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
POLICY
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
OBJECTIVES
SOCIAL
AMENITY PROVISION
LANDUSE PLANNING
ENTERPRIZE INITIATIVES
TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
TACTICS
MODE
LOCATION
FREQUENCY
PROXIMITY
VEHICLES
ATTRIBUTES
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PURPOSE OF HIERARCHICAL MODEL

• To reduce remoteness in decision making so that
  attributes can be rated directly with respect to
  policy
• by attaching expert weights to each of the
  objectives, tactics and attributes
• attributes
• are prioritised with respect to each tactic
• tactics
• are prioritised with respect to each objective
• objectives
• are prioritised with respect to policy

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• Ultimately, the decision weight vectors at each
  level are grouped in matrix form so that, if they
  are identified as
• C/T the COMPONENTS to TACTICS matrix,
• T/O the TACTICS to OBJECTIVES matrix and
• O/P the OBJECTIVES to POLICY matrix ,
• then
• the matrix product C/T ? T/O ? O/P yields a
  COMPONENTS to POLICY vector which when normalised
  gives the desired prioritisation weights.

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FINAL ATTRIBUTES WEIGHTINGS (From personal data
related to the Belfast survey)
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SUB-ATTRIBUTES USED IN DETERMINATION OF POINTS
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TYPICAL HSI CALCULATION FOR A HOUSEHOLD
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CONTRIBUTION OF MEAN HSIs TO THE MEAN LOCATION
HSI
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RESULTS - Typical SPSS Output
Belfast Knockmore display a greater difference
between the mean HSI values, (respective
significance values p0.003 and p0.022).
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CAR OWNERSHIP RESULTS
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WORK ACTIVITY MODAL SPLIT BY LOCATION
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NEWCOMER RESIDENTS OF BELFAST
AVERAGE MODAL SPLIT PERCENTAGES ACROSS ALL
ACTIVITIES
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CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE

• promote brownfield sites within established urban
  areas
• take account of the distribution of activity
  centres/attractors in design if new housing
• offer planners a new insight into the
  practicalities of promoting sustainable area
  planning
• reveal the householders attitudes to sustainable
  lifestyles as well as providing base-line data on
  current behaviour patterns

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• illustrate the use of travel behaviour indicators
  linked to a structured and stable points scheme
• address the notion of comparative sustainability
  across settlement types based on travel
  behavioural issues
• offer potential for an area-wide comparative
  basis for ranking settlements, particularly
  commuter settlements, against normalised
  sustainability benchmarks

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PROGRESS..

• Over the last few years national transport policy
  in the UK has been focused on the goal of getting
  people out of their cars and onto public
  transport.
• Issues of increased density and compaction, urban
  form and structure have also moved centre stage
  within sustainable development policy

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• With the sustainability debate high on Government
  agenda, and with emphasis on Agenda 21, Northern
  Ireland is striving to follow its European and UK
  wide counterparts.
• Already, plans for
• traffic-calming measures,
• cycleways, priority bus lanes and
• urban regeneration
• have been implemented.
• Recent media attention has been directed at
  purpose-built villages, which are at various
  stages of design and development.

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CONCLUDING REMARKS

• A target of 4.4 million new homes in the UK
  raises the issue of
• GREENFIELD -Vs- BROWNFIELD
• development and a coupled anxiety about the
  inevitable urban sprawl, so If we are to set
  about achieving our working definition, action
  must be taken

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ACTION REQUIRED

• Need to make high density areas more attractive
  to consumers.
• Housing capacity could be significantly increased
  by
• careful control of design
• pragmatic use of on-street spaces to meet parking
  demand
• retention of street trees, planting and open
  spaces
• These could replace emphasis on maximum density
  (Llewelyn-Davies, 1994).

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Recommended Reading.

• Webster, F.V. and Paulley, N.J., An Interaction
  Study on Land Use and Transport Interaction,
  Transport Reviews, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 287-308,
  (1990).
• The Bartlett School of Planning Web Site
  http//www.transplus.net/
• David Banister, Ian Cullen, Roger Mackett, The
  impact of land use on travel demand. London
  Planning and Development Research Centre, UCL,
  (1990).
• David Banister and Kenneth Button (Eds.),
  Transport, the environment and sustainable
  development. London Spon, (1993).
• Land use, transport and environmental
  sustainability in cities. Michele Cera -
  http//www.uta.fi/laitokset/historia/ester/papers/
  Paper_Cera.pdf